“Dad, we know how much that you love history, and want us kids to appreciate it. Well, there’s this new park outside Atlanta where we can learn history – AND have fun at the same time. It’s called Six Flags Over Georgia. It got its name from the fact that Georgia has had six flags at various times. So, Dad, can we go? Can we? Can we?”

Such a plaintive plea might have been plead by Chattanooga children in 1967, when the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park opened at Austell, Georgia. The first Six Flags opened in 1961 in Arlington, Texas with oil man Angus G. Wynne as its guiding force. The amusement park was divided into distinctive areas aligned with each of the six countries which had once flown its flag over Texas.

Six Flags Over Georgia opened to the public in June, 1967. An advertisement ran in the Chattanooga News-Free Press in an attempt to motivate families to load up the station wagon and head to Six Flags. The ad read, “Opening June 16 – Fantastic Family Fun in Atlanta – Six Flags Over Georgia. Main gate admission was $3.95 for adults and $2.95 for children.

My family was there during the inaugural season. Our home movies of the trip begin with footage of my father pointing out the six flags at the entrance plaza. I recall that he was very impressed by how the park designers had combined history with fun. However, his spirits were diminished by the end of the day, after he had lost his sunglasses to the force of the Dahlonega Mine Train roller coaster.

No matter which theme park that we ever visited, we always began our day by riding the train. We felt that it was best to get a good overall view of the lay of the land. The two steam engines at Six Flags were the Texas and the General, inspired by the famous Civil War train chase.

I believe that our second ride was the log flume. The fast-moving water carried the boats through the curves of the aquamarine chute which ended in a splashdown. The ride didn’t get as nearly as wet as an Atlanta thunderstorm which occurred late in the afternoon. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen rain fall like it did that day. We took in some of the indoor attractions, such as the Tales of the Okefenokee boat ride, while we waited out the storm.

A few years later, my ninth grade class went to Six Flags on a spring field trip. Everyone on the bus started the day grooving to music provided by a portable 45 RPM record player that one of the students had brought. However, by the time that we got to the mandatory exit from I-75 to US 41, repetitions of songs such as “Love on a Two-Way Street” and “Cold Sweat” had grown a bit old. We cheered when the record player’s battery gave out.

On that trip, I remember riding the Spindle Top for the first time. This was a ride where passengers stood in a revolving barrel-like room. When the Spindle Top had reached sufficient speed, the room’s platform was dropped, leaving passengers pinned against the wall.

In addition to rides, Six Flags offered musical entertainment at the Crystal Pistol and at outdoor concerts. On the way back to the bus, I stopped to hear a band with a horn section which was playing “The Letter” in the style of Joe Cocker’s version. Being two minutes late to the bus earned me a detention. There is no greater deterrent to misbehavior than serving detention in a school room with large windows, through which you see your buddies leaving for home on time. I wanted to hang my head and cry, just like Johnny Cash.

In later years, I was a passenger on The Great Gasp and The Great American Scream Machine during their first years of operation. Folks of my generation now have to review the health checklist of rides like that – blood pressure, back, etc. We also notice how that we don’t fit as well as we once did in the seats of the older roller coasters.

Six Flags gradually de-emphasized its history theme in favor of more, bigger, and faster roller coasters. This year, the park celebrates its fortieth season of operation, and remains a favorite of Chattanoogans who want to take a road trip for summer fun.

If you have memories of Six Flags, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.

Surviving the Great Gasp parachute ride earned one this badge of courage. Click to enlarge.